A potpourri

 A quick potpourri...

If you're in Perth and wondering what the heck these Blackhawks are doing flying around like maniacs, it's this https://www.army.gov.au/our-news/army-exercises-alerts/australian-defence-force-counter-terrorism-training-western-australia-mid-late-november-2020 .

I've tried 3 terrific board games in real life cardboard recently - Fossilis, Transatlantic and the new Cleopatra and the Society of Architects. All very fine plays. Transatlantic is available for everyone to play for free on yucata.de .

Fossilis and CSSA were kickstarters and particularly beautiful in their production. The rules adjustments on CSSA make for a sleeker play, and Fossilis, pushing rock, clay and sand around and rummaging in pits with tweezers to obtain enough of the right sorts of bones to reconstruct the prehistoric creatures is just plain fun, with some nasty push people off the dig twists which can be left out or put in depending on audience.

We had a very nice gluten free high tea down at the newly renamed Zoie Cafe (was Cocolat) on Sunday morning in Scarborough. We've been doing plenty of merswimming down at the Scarborough pool - much better now they've gone to summer hours, closing at 9:00pm so we don't have to compete with the squads for space.

Nyoongar language class has broken up for the year so we'll be doing some revision at home. South Australia, I hope things get nailed down quick for you. We're all wishing you the very best in speedily dealing with this particular fast and spreadable mutation!

The coronagarden has done its dash with the amazing kept-on-giving broccoli and cauliflower and now they've been cleared away for some heirloom cherry tomatoes and herbs, particularly basil.

Paris the Hamburg bantam is still with us and is her usual self. I'm still enjoying contributing to iNaturalist Australia, and will get back to my backlog of all the digital photos of lifeforms I have. We've had the pruners in and  the garden is looking pretty ready for late Kambarang and Birak bonar.

I have some birthday celebrations coming up, the first of which is The Princess Bride rooftop cinema coming up, which will be very cool. Hopefully this SA coronavirus won't get to us here but just in case I'm going to make the most of every swim, of every outing, because we never know when we too, might be plunged into sudden lock down.

Sanitise often, stay 1.5 metres away and wear a mask if you can't maintain that distance. And stay strong South Australia, if a late to the party Victoria can do it, you can too!

Cool!

 Check this out! It’s a neat interactive map that lets you hear first language words from all over Australia! https://50words.online/

Constant vigilance is the price of not running out of ventilators.

 As I get on the train people are sitting close to one another. As I enter a shopping mall, I'm the only one that's using hand sanitiser.  

 

I go into Coles or Woollies or IGA. I'm still the only one using hand sanitiser.  There are no trolley wipes, so I suppose that's good in a way, it shows it's being used, but no one's on watch for it. People crowd close to me in the checkout queue. 

 

We never really needed to get into the mask thing here.

 

And I understand why people have slumped back to normal with some relief here. It was scary and inconvenient.

 

Trouble is, I know, and you know that it only takes one mistake for this thing to get out into the community. And here in  "Bubble-you-eh" this complacency might come back to bite us, especially with an increase of people coming in from overseas, and soon from interstate. I don't want to keep the people out, but I wish the public's response to them coming was a return to the sensible habits of when we had community spread in W.A.

 

It just takes one mistake. Normally, this might be buffered by people who might be exposed maintaining distance, hand sanitising and taking precautions. 

 

But our fear has gone  because we've been protected.  So, my fellow Sandgropers, if you're reading this blog you'r probably already a well informed person.  All we can do is practise these habits ourselves, and hope to influence those around us. Otherwise, what else can we do? I'm really worried about the complacency I see around me, I scoffed at the silliness of the people in this article hugging and kissing in Victoria back then https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-26/coronavirus-melbourne-testing-blitz-underway-in-hotspot-suburbs/12393984 , but now I think we've got the potential to have it spread here like lightning because we've become too slack. 

 

What else can we do?